Panels, such as residential intrusion or fire alarm security panels, may be configured to support wireless communications. Manufacturers and suppliers of the panels may service a large number of users (e.g., a large number of customer accounts) at geographically dispersed locations. Accordingly, the manufacturers/suppliers may incur large expenses in terms of providing support for the panels.
One type of support activity involves updating a panel. For example, a panel might be updated if a new feature becomes available or if a preexisting feature is replaced or upgraded. Manually updating the panel may represent a burden to the manufacturer/supplier in terms of time, labor, and/or additional costs. Such additional costs may include the time needed to test the new feature, potentially in combination with the rest of the features of the panel. The additional costs may include errors resulting from human error, e.g., operator or technician mistakes. In some embodiments, the errors may expose the panel to potential damage. The additional costs may include the cost of transmitting the new feature to the panel. For example, a network provider may impose a charge based on the time a communication channel is occupied and/or based on a quantity or volume of data transmitted via the channel. If the panel polls the manufacturer's or supplier's platform (e.g., a server computer) for any potential updates, the channel might be occupied unnecessarily by the polling requests if the updates are infrequent. Furthermore, if the communication channel is unreliable, one or more portions of a download operation may need to be repeated, thereby increasing the time that the channel is occupied.